Armstrong Ceilings announces winner of #evoNewBeginnings competition

Written by Armstrong Ceilings 16th July 2018

We are delighted to announce that the winner of our New Beginnings competition to receive a new ceiling is The Space Field Lane, a project to revive a community centre on the Field Lane Estate in Rastrick, West Yorkshire.

About the Winners: The Space Field Lane

A group of community volunteers has been working together for several years to bring about a ‘new beginning’ to this former community centre at the heart of the Field Lane Estate in Rastrick in West Yorkshire.

The community centre has been closed for seven years and the estate is desperately short of a facility where its community can come together. The project aims to bring about activities for all generations, opportunities for socialising at the planned community café, and training and vital opportunities for the young people of the estate.

Group trustees have taken the building over from the council and have design plans in place to complete major refurbishment, including two big spaces which need new ceilings, lighting and so on. They were two thirds of the way towards the total funding of £480,000 required but have already had to scale back to make the project feasible.

The estimated cost for removal and replacement of the existing ceiling alone was £16,000 including VAT and fees so winning the Dune eVo ceiling enables the group to add major value to other parts of the refurbishment, bringing back some of the other key enhancements they have had to forfeit.

The Space Field Lane project was entered into the competition by its architect Neil Hardacre of Pickles Architecture in Brighouse.

On hearing that they had won the prize, trustee Mary Green said,

“We are absolutely delighted. This is terrific news and a real morale booster to us as a team apart from the practical help that the prize will give to our project.

“It will be huge for the residents of the estate. They will be thrilled to bits that this opportunity has been given to our estate and our project. We have been working on this for so long now. We are almost there now.”

Thank You to all the Entrants to #eVoNewBeginnings

Rays of Sunshine’s Sara Rees said she was honoured to be asked to join the judges’ panel for what was an “excellent” initiative. She added:

“We were really impressed with the quality of the applications, so the judging process required some significant consideration and deliberation. The panel discussed each case in turn, assessing them against several measures including the context of the new ceiling, the impact on the local community, and the long-term legacy of the project.

“A big thank you to everyone who applied – they were all very deserving entries. There were a number of strong contenders but the overall winner demonstrated remarkable passion, commitment, resourcefulness, hard work and determination – a real example of ordinary people coming together in a community to achieve something extraordinary. I am excited about what is going to be achieved and can’t wait to see the outcome.”

We’d like to extend our thanks to all the entrants to the #eVoNewBeginnings competition. Please support them by visiting their entry pages, checking out their websites and talking to them on their social media channels.

Tiber Football Centre in Liverpool. Tiber is an organisation which supports 14-18 year olds in Liverpool. They are building a new Football Centre which will provide football coaching to young people across the city. Twitter: @tiber_org

Kingsmead School, Hednesford. Kingsmead was built in 1938 in Staffordshire, and still has some of its original timber corridor ceilings – they would like to replace them and improve the learning environment for their pupils. Twitter: @kingsmeadonline Website: kingsmeadschool.net

St Augustine’s Nursery, St Augustines Catholic Primary School, Gateshead. This primary school nursing space has a damaged ceiling and replacing it will enable the school to make the space available to the community during the school holidays. Website: http://staugustinesprimary.org/